I. Field
The present invention relates generally to data communication, and more specifically to techniques for calibrating transmit and receive chains at a wireless entity in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system.
II. Background
A MIMO system employs multiple (NT) transmit antennas and multiple (NR) receive antennas for data transmission. A MIMO channel formed by the NT transmit and NR receive antennas may be decomposed into NS spatial channels, where NS≦min {NT, NR}. The NS spatial channels may be used to transmit data in parallel to achieve higher overall throughput or redundantly to achieve greater reliability.
To obtain high performance, it is often necessary to know the response of the entire transmission path from a transmitting entity to a receiving entity. This transmission path, which may be called an “effective” channel, typically includes a transmit chain at the transmitting entity, the MIMO channel, and a receive chain at the receiving entity. The transmit chain includes NT transmitter units, one transmitter unit for each transmit antenna. Each transmitter unit contains circuitry (e.g., digital-to-analog converter, filter, amplifier, mixer, and so on) that performs signal conditioning on a baseband signal to generate a radio frequency (RF) transmit signal suitable for transmission from the associated transmit antenna. The NT transmitter units may have different responses due to differences in the circuitry within these units. The receive chain includes NR receiver units, one receiver unit for each receive antenna. Each receiver unit contains circuitry (e.g., filter, amplifier, mixer, analog-to-digital converter, and so on) that performs signal conditioning on an RF receive signal from the associated receive antenna to obtain a received baseband signal. The NR receiver units may also have different responses due to differences in the circuitry within these units.
The effective channel response includes the responses of the transmit and receive chains as well as the response of the MIMO channel. Channel estimation may be simplified and performance may be improved if the responses of the transmit and receive chains can be determined and accounted for. The simplification in channel estimation is especially desirable for a MIMO system in which the downlink and uplink share a single frequency band in a time division duplex manner, as described below.
There is, therefore, a need in the art for techniques to calibrate the transmit and receive chains at the transmitting and receiving entities in a MIMO system.